Who thought my brother was that smart. Well, he is smart, but not usually with computers. I was telling him about my computer woes and the first thing he said was ‘cold soldered‘ joint. If you don’t know what that is, check this out, but I think he was correct. I believe that when I took the computer apart and moved it around, the huge honking custom heat sink I had on there stressed a solder joint on the CPU socket, and when anything bumped the computer, the CPU would disconnect from the machine and halt it.

I removed the quiet but big honking heat sink/fan and went back to the LOUD Intel OEM heat sink/fan and the machine has been fine ever since.

Well, I guess he would know a thing or two about electronics, seeing how he rewired and repaired the electronics systems on Air Force fighter jets for years.

Note To Self: when brother talks about electronics: listen.